Serviceable graphics and good sound make Infogrames’ latest offering to the Flight Combat genre the next best thing to a real dogfight. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking from the graphics, but Eagle One is less about flashy environments and more about simulating the look of a Harrier jet cockpit. The HUD (Heads Up Display) indicators, combat sounds, and enemy location system may not seem impressive to those accustomed to pre-rendered backgrounds and cinematic lighting, but Infogrames worked hard on the little details. Another area where graphic quality comes through is in the TV News-style intros for each level, painstakingly edited and mixed together from real-life footage to follow the game’s storyline.

Eagle One: Harrier Attack tells the story of a militant group’s attack and capture of the Hawaiian Islands, pitting you against an army of ground and air forces in your trusty Harrier and other earned aircraft, as you fight to regain control in hostile territory. Infogrames spins out the story well, and each mission-based stage has good variety, leading you from island to island in pursuit of offensive, defensive, and strategic objectives. The high points of each stage include missions to strafe ground targets, defend tactically important physical sites, and chaperone allies during dangerous covert ops. There really isn’t any opportunity to branch away from the planned course, so if a particular mission gets old, you’ll still have to suffer through to reach the next level. Unlike Colony Wars’ sprawling mission plans, Eagle One is very structured in its progress, which may not appeal to everyone.

I found the mix of mission objectives nice, with the only downside being the bombing runs and the overwhelming volume of the enemy forces. Even though no mission feels too long, there are times when strategy could be dictated more clearly. The bombing mechanism is just too weak, and really shouldn’t be part of the game. Obviously, real-life Harrier jets may have this ability, but the process feels clunky compared to strafing runs on ground forces and dogfights. The dogfights really stand out as solid gameplay, and the neatest thing about the Harrier is its VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) capability. Combining this with standard Jet Mode makes for a lethal combination. Ground forces will shrink back as you hover above, blasting them to pieces, and there’s nothing more demoralizing to a MiG21 than floating around deftly tracking him 360° with a hot Sidewinder Missile. It takes some skill to master the two modes, but Infogrames designed a good control layout.

The main One-Player Mode is huge, and there’s a good Training Mode to illustrate various strengths and styles of the Harrier jet. Inside the one-player game, there are some hidden objectives that earn you points for extraordinary feats of bravery and special flying ability. Bonus points earned in this way lead to special aircraft and a bonus stage. Two-Player Mode has both Cooperative and Vs. Mode, with several custom levels to fly, although it doesn’t add any more flight features.

One of the frustrating things about mission-based gameplay is getting to the end of a stage, dying, and then having to play the entire stage over. Luckily, Eagle One’s stages are all about the right size. They are not, however, very easy. Even with three difficulty levels, the Easy setting with all auto-assist functions turned on is still hard. Sometimes, it’s just an awkward control issue, like the bombing stages. Other times, it’s the lack of direction you’re given from the start as to what your priority should be. Or it’s just that there are a lot of people shooting at you and you die. The bottom line is that the gameplay could have been a bit more balanced to make Eagle One an enjoyable game for someone who just liked the idea of Flight Combat. As it is, the experience will be most enjoyable for someone with a simulation mentality who also enjoys blowing things up. Not recommended for kids, because they’re likely to get bored with all the little details.

In the Little Details category are the many things you need to manage in this game while trying to kill or not be killed. I found the controls to be good, and there’s never anything that feels mushy. What is frustrating is the lack of functionality for the right analog control stick. Throttle seems like the obvious choice, but instead, the stick is assigned a ‘look around’ function that I found pretty useless. Changing weapons is easily managed, but the guided missiles don’t fly as true as you’d think. Ground targets and Apache helicopters are sitting ducks, but chasing a jet down is tough. Flight controls are primarily handled via the left analog stick for flaps, and the shoulder buttons for rudder. In Hover Mode, the up-down attitude of the plane dictates forward motion, and airspeed drops to nothing. In this way, the Harrier acts more like a helicopter and takes the most getting used to. Default controls include an auto-assist feature which won’t let you fly inverted, drop out of the sky in Hover Mode, or pull any other crazy stunts. For experienced pilots, the auto-assist is annoying, but it helps to customize the difficulty. Learning to read the HUD takes time, but it will generally tell you everything you need to stay on target and complete objectives. Infogrames really made things nice from the cockpit view, but if you like a God’s-eye view of your dogfight, it’s possible to get outside the plane during the action. This is the default view when landing, a maneuver that is actually one of the easier things to learn in Eagle One.

For those who enjoyed Ace Combat and Colony Wars, Eagle One feels like more of the same, and is equally well done. While a bit too linear for my taste, it’s crafted so well and with such detail that I never got bored. My patience was tried more than once, but there’s too much solid gameplay to ruin the experience. Infogrames makes a nice addition to the Flight Combat genre, and manages to raise an eyebrow in the Flight Sim crowd as well. As a standard ‘jet’ game, this could have been seen as an Ace Combat knockoff. With its depth and well crafted storyline, not to mention the choice of the Harrier and its VTOL capability, Eagle One: Harrier Attack comes in as one of the top five Flight games in the PlayStation library.